Illinois Kitchen Reno
My family is known as being loud... and we sometimes use bad grammar. We're working on both. HA! I blame my husband. My kids and husband affectionately pronounce the Land of Lincoln, 'Illi-noise'. When we found out we were heading North, we set out to find a home we could make our own. This house had a cabin feel, tucked between massive mulberry trees, a little room to roam, southern exposure, open concept, so.much.potential. That is mostly Spirea all along the porch, it is a perennial that blooms all summer. The house was also surrounded by tiger lilies. Beautiful! Just needed a little cleaning up.
The kitchen was in sad shape. The house was built in 97 by smokers that also loved wallpaper (with borders), popcorn ceilings, track lighting, and carpet. We knew the carpet couldn't stay long.The soil in NW Illinois is very sandy, and after being walked on for almost 20 years, we knew there had to be a beach underneath! Pardon my mess.
This 'need' for new flooring led us to 'need' to replace the kitchen. My sister came for a visit the week we moved in and was eager to help get the plaid off the walls, she (with a little help) scraped it all down with warm water and kitchen spatulas!
We replaced the carpet, and maple laminate floors with this Tobacco Road Acacia engineered hardwood from Lumber Liquidators, you can find it here. I do not recommend this flooring for people with small children or dogs. Although is was very easy and quick to install, we found that it scratched easily. We used Bellawood Scratch Away to hide scratches (bought at Lumber Liquidators), and this cleaner and recommended for care and this makes it easy to do so. One thing about it I did love was the color variation, which is probably why we went with hickory in our current home.
We decided to brighten up our space, with white 42' cabinets to make the room feel a little taller, and a neutral countertop (that hides coffee grounds really well!), Blanco City Silestone quartz. Kitchen Cabinet Kings were extremely easy to work with. After submitting our kitchen dimensions and preferences online they assigned us a designer- she was so great to work with, and even personalized the space with the backsplash we picked so we could 'see' it before ordering.
Your countertops cannot be measured until the bottom cabinets are ready, and you have a sink and faucet in hand. We ordered the cabinets RTA. They are made of wood (even the shelves!) and were so easy to assemble. Buying them RTA saved us $500. Kitchen Cabinet Kings offers 15% off several times a year, and free shipping!
This is the plan we decided to go with.
So it was out with the old and in with the new!
I was so happy to have a stove back... but still had a couple weeks of washing dishes in the tub, running to the basement to use the fridge, and using plywood for a counter. No regrets!
What do you think of the transformation halfway through? I love white! These cabinets are so clean (and smell much better!) and have so much more storage in them. It was at this point that I started painting the walls.
I was still in a taupe phase last year, that was before I met SW Colonnade. This color looked so good with the white cabinets, but didn't darken the room. I ended up painting our kitchen, dining room, living room, and hallways this color. It also complimented the color variation in the floors...and made me think of drinking more coffee.
Base cabinets are in! Time to get a sink and faucet then call the get the countertops measured. My plumber recommended going with Kraus. My sister recently put a Kraus farmhouse sink in her kitchen. I love that they are deep, and insulated (less noise when washing). This is the one we went with. I love a double bowl... keep the dirty dishes on one side! This is the Kraus faucet my plumber recommended.
After 2 weeks of impatiently waiting... the counters are getting installed! It only took 30 minutes.
Counters mean I get a sink back! My plumber worked hard to get all my appliances and my faucet installed that very day! He works for food, so I paid him with a warm meal made in my new kitchen! The over hang on the peninsula is one of my favorite parts of the kitchen. The kids will spend lots of time eating and schooling there! A 12 inch over hang allowed for stools with no support needed. I bought mine in a home store, but these are similar.
I also started putting knobs on the cabinets that night. We couldn't wait to be finished. Next came the backsplash. Subway tile with light grey grout was our choice. It was cheap and so very easy to install. It was great that we were in a functioning kitchen while finishing this project.
I still can't believe how well the kitchen turned out. We ended up swapping the fridge and pantry and ended up with more counter space and a more functional kitchen.
You can find the pillows on the pew here, and shoe bucket here. I chose black Knobs and drawer pulls, I feel like every room needs black as an accent. We also removed the fancy gold lighting below and replaced it (and all the can lights) with flush mount can lights. We hit our head on it one too many times (and we aren't fans of gold).
You can find similar dining room lighting here. Did you notice the fireplace? It makes the room so cozy, even without a fire burning. The 'H' (18x24) came from a storefront in Alabama, but you can find a similar one here.
I hope you loved our kitchen reno! Please send a message to erin@thathallsomeidea.com if you have any cc, comments, or questions!